Submit Express Newsletter #72 (July 01 2010)

elcome to the latest edition of the Submit Express newsletter, where you can find the latest news about our company and the ever-changing worlds of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media. Submit Express continues to work hard this summer in helping our clients to increase their visibility with the leading search engines. With the continuing shift in Internet search trends and the growth of new social media sites, we are developing new strategies to leverage these changes to our clients' advantages. Feel free to contact us to learn about our SEO services or the social media marketing services provided by our iClimber team.

Ten Essential SEO Content Writing Tips

Writing is as much as an art form as it is a skill, but that doesn't mean that you can't write content that is powerful and helps to improve your company's ranking with the major search engines. There are certain elements which can help your website content, blog posts, articles submitted to online directories and other online content increase your rankings and move your business forward. Here are ten things to look for:

1. Content Matters: No matter what you write, keep in mind that it has the potential to reach a large audience and be beneficial to your company beyond any SEO benefits. Blogs, articles and on-site content are a chance to link your company to useful, interesting information about your industry. Well-written copy about intriguing topics is also more likely to be linked and shared by outsiders -- increasing your page rank as well.

2. Write Compelling Headings: The titles of your articles and webpages are important -- they are among the first things that can grab the reader's attention. Instead of using a boring, generic heading, make sure that your heading is interesting while clearly explaining the content. Working a keyword into the heading is also a good idea.

3. Stay on Topic: It's easy to write around a topic and begin drifting into tangents that are unrelated to your topic. Keep in mind that this is business writing and not a personal blog! While it's OK to have some personality in your writing, your focus should always be on the topic you are writing about.

4. Ideal Keyword Length and Density: For website content and off-site articles for directory submission, content could be 300 to 1,000 words in length. The length of your article will largely be determined by the number of keywords you are using: you should use a keyword for every 50 to 100 words of content.

5. Don't Stack Keywords: Some people cram all of their articles' keywords into one section at the beginning of the article - often as part of a list. This looks unprofessional since all of your linked keywords will be running together on the page. Spread your keywords evenly throughout the article so they look more organic.

6. Add Keywords to the Bio: Whether you are writing a story for a magazine or submitting an article to an online directory, there will be an opportunity for you to add your biographical information. This is valuable real estate and another chance for optimization. Make sure that you include one keyword in your bio.

7. Write and Tag Hierarchically: Using the appropriate tags for your content will show Google and other search engines that it is professional and well-structured, leading to higher placements. Make sure you use the h1 tag for titles and the h2 tag for subheadings, etc. You should also apply this concept to your writing, putting the most compelling information up front.

8. Use META Descriptions: Making sure that your articles have META descriptions -- 150 character descriptions of the content -- that have keywords included. Including META descriptions is a great way to get Google to recognize your content and give it greater value.

9. Write Original Content: Search engines will punish sites that publish duplicate content that already exists online. Make sure that your content is fresh and original instead of just "copying and pasting" content from existing sources.

10. Choose Relevant Images: Having eye-catching images that are relevant to your content will grab the reader's attention. You can use Creative Commons search tools like the one found at http://www.bad-neighborhood.com/creative-commons-image-search.htm to find intriguing images that are free to use without risking copyright infringement.

Google Caffeine Now Live

Google's new web indexing system Caffeine is now live. According to a company blog post, Google built the new search indexing system over a year ago to keep up with the evolution of the Web and to meet rising user expectations. Caffeine offers 50 percent fresher results for web searches than Google's last index and boasts the largest collection of web content the company has ever offered.

In comparison to the old index, Caffeine allows Google to index web pages on a much larger scale, making it possible for users to find new pages or information faster than before. The old index, which was comprised of several layers, refreshed at a much slower rate than Caffeine because Google would have to analyze the entire web before a page could be made available to the searcher. With Caffeine, Google is able to analyze the web in small portions and update the search index on a regular basis.

According to the announcement, "Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day."

What does this mean for searches and content owners? Vanessa Fox of Search Engine Land writes, "Caffeine is a revamp of Google's indexing infrastructure. It is not a change to Google's ranking algorithms."

Yahoo! Launches Facebook Features

As part of last year's partnership with Facebook, Yahoo! announced new features this month that will allow users of both networks to link their accounts and view and share updates.

According to Yahoo!, people who use both Yahoo! and Facebook will now have access to the Facebook News Feed on the Yahoo! homepage, in Yahoo! Mail and other Yahoo! sites and services.

In addition, people who create and share information on Yahoo! sites (including Yahoo! News, Flickr and Yahoo! Movies) can now share content with friends on Facebook.

"From news to sports to entertainment, Yahoo! sites provide ideal experiences to share with friends," said Ethan Beard, director of the Facebook Developer Network. "By integrating with Facebook on a global scale, Yahoo! is building upon an already valuable brand to give people easy ways to share the content they enjoy on Yahoo! with their friends on Facebook."

British Petroleum Buys Search Terms Relating to Oil Leak

While British Petroleum is currently battling a massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico from one of its exploratory drilling expeditions, it is also engaging in another damage control effort - one to protect its reputation. ABC News reports that BP has attempted to control the flow of negative publicity online by loosening its purse strings, as it has spent heavily to purchase top placements on search engines such as Google and Yahoo! for keyword phrases related to the environmental disaster.

For example, a person doing a search for the phrase "oil spill" on Google will receive thousands of links to news articles about the Gulf Coast crisis, but the first link returned is to BP's corporate page with highlighted text inviting people to "learn more about how BP is helping."

"We have bought search terms on search engines like Google to make it easier for people to find out more about our efforts in the Gulf and make it easier for people to find key links to information on filing claims, reporting oil on the beach and signing up to volunteer," BP spokesman Toby Odone told ABC News.

The move could backfire if people feel as though BP is attempting to manipulate the public by spending money on search engine results rather than on the clean-up. However, Kevin Ryan, the CEO of California-based Motivity Marketing, said that most people are unaware of the differences between organic search results and those that are the result of paid advertising.

Google to Roll Out Music Service Tied to Search Engine

Google is attempting to tie everything else to its industry-leading search engine, so why not music? The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Google will roll out a music download service later this year that is tied to its search engine, with an online subscription service coming in 2011.

Google declined to comment on the report, and it's unclear if Google has struck any deals with major record labels yet. However, the ubiquity of the Google search engine along with the rise in popularity of the Android mobile operating system means that record labels will likely want to listen when Google approaches them for partnerships.

In the past year, Google has already partnered with music content Web sites like iLike and Pandora, linking them through their search by letting users stream songs from the sites based on search results. Google's music service is the next logical step in this process, by eliminating the middleman and having Google deliver the music directly.

Facebook consumers who are fans of a brand are more valuable to organizations than regular Facebook users, according to a new study from Syncapse Corp.

Is your site anywhere to be found in the search engines? Do you need to be in the top 10 of search engines, but don't know how? Are you tired of trying everything you possibly can and still are nowhere to be found?